You are going to love this southern banana pudding cake. Made from a doctored-up boxed cake mix and filled with banana pudding before being covered in a homemade whipped cream cheese frosting.
Cut some parchment paper into circles that can fit at the bottom of your 8 inch cake pans. Spray cake pans with non-stick cooking spray and lay the parchment circles inside. Spray again with cooking spray and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl blend the bananas with an electric mixer until creamy.
Add in the cake mix, eggs, oil, dry pudding mix, and vanilla until well mixed. Do not overmix.
Divide the batter between your prepared cake pans.
Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted into the center and come out clean.
Once the cakes have finished baking allow them to cool in the cake pans for about 10 minutes before flipping over onto a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
Allow them to cool on the racks upside down and make sure to remove any parchment paper from the bottom of the cake.
Once the cakes are completely cooled, flip them over onto a cutting board and level the tops with a large bread knife.
Prepare the frosting
In a large mixing bowl cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar until just combined. Do not overmix.
In another large mixing bowl beat the heavy cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
Add the cream cheese mixture to the whipped cream and beat again until combined. Do not overmix.
Prepare Filling
Make one box of banana instant pudding according to the package directions.
Assembly
Place one topless cake layer in front of you and leave the other off to the side.
Place some frosting into a pastry bag or Ziploc baggie with a corner snipped off.
Make a circle around the rim of the top.
Spoon in your cold and chilled pudding. Spread it around so that it fills the circle and is pretty even looking.
Stack the two cakes on top of each other by placing one on top of the pudding topped one.
Try to get them to stand as straight as you can. If needed, place everything into the fridge to chill for one hour so it holds up better. You can also freeze the cake at this point and chill the frosting until ready to use.
When the cakes are stacked and sturdy, pipe the white frosting around the outside where the middles are and go around the cake with a flat leveler or surface (a wooden ruler works okay in a pinch).
Angle it slightly so you're pressing into the cake while removing excess frosting. This should fill in any gaps so the cake is level on the sides.
A first layer of frosting would be called a "crumb layer" and it is meant to be thin and to hold any loose crumbs in place. Let it chill at this point before adding another thicker layer of frosting if desired.
Frost the entire cake with a nice thick layer of white frosting so that it is about ¼ inch thick and you can't see the cake poking through. Go over it again with your flat leveler as much as needed to get it to look as desired. Don't forget to level out the top.
Press broken cookie crumbs around the outside of the cake to cover the sides.
Top the cake with sliced bananas and whole Nilla wafer cookies just before serving.
Over mixing the cream cheese mixture can result in the frosting not setting properly and becoming soupy. If this happens there's not much that can save it, unfortunately. If desired you can use the alternative frosting recipe below.ALTERNATIVE FROSTING RECIPE:
In one bowl mix 1 box (3.4 ounces) cheesecake flavored instant pudding with 1 cup of milk. Let sit 5 minutes to set.
Beat 1 quart of heavy cream until stiff peaks in a large bowl and then add in the pudding mix and beat again until combined.
This frosting is pipeable and will remain stable/shape holding but will still need to be kept in the fridge for food safety reasons. (Any flavor instant pudding will work but the white ones will show food coloring better).